Becoming A Monster
by Bladedhc
Summary: A Man finds himself conscripted to an army he thought purely fiction. Welcome to Freiza Force Dennis
1. Chapter 1

"Designation?" the monotone of the robot calmed me somewhat of my current situation.

"Do not look directly into..The Nozzle"

"Dennis" The Nozzle examined my form as it spoke, though it really had no determinable appearance, aside from reminding me of something I couldn't quite remember

"Place of Conscription?" "Abandoned escape pod, found by shuttle 62-48-25F"

"Race?" "Human"

"Approximate power level?" "...Three."

"Verification Confirmed, welcome to Freeza force, conscript Dennis, barracks are on level three, no personal room will be provided."

As I stepped away from The Nozzle I couldn't help but remember what brought me here.

A fucking birthday wish, I had been sitting through the same song and dance my family put us through whenever one of us got a little older, and in the tedium of it all, I wished for a life in Dragon Ball Z.

The world froze, A horrible, horrible voice, sounding of rotting meat being slapped against itself replied to my silent wish.

"Granted, little fly,"

I awoke to alien faces glaring back at me, pulling me from some pod, and dressing me in somewhat familiar armor, before telling me I was fodder to be used at Freezas will.

"Planet Trade Freeza?" I asked, with some trepidation, before it started to come together.

"Indeed new meat, you'll serve our glorious overlord better knowing who he is."

They measured my meager power, tossed me with several other terrified beings, and left.

Some got selected as training dummies, others as food to the soldiers with higher power levels, but I knew they respected power here.

As the hours ticked by and the people I was with were dragged away, screaming of how unfair it was, all I could do was hope to find a way to impress the next guy enough to be the kind of conscript they used in fights instead of the kind they used for practice.

The room smelled like disinfectant, fluorescent lighting shined down on the other inhabitants of the room.

They seemed as concerned as I was, shivering in corners and hoping they would be noticed last.

I wanted to live, I wanted to live more at that moment than I ever had, I knew people like humans were just toys to the aliens and monster that existed here, meat to be exterminated so the strong could take the planet we inhabited.

Even the aliens were weak compared to what the main cast would later become, charnel forgotten and ignored as the real power came to challenge Earth for it's right to live on.

I needed to be seen as one of these monsters if I wanted to live even past today, so I decided to do something to show the same disregard for life they did, to show them that I was weak, but I was like them.

So I considered something I never put real thought to before.

Murder, for it could be called nothing else. I was going to kill these people, who were just as scared as I was.

If only to seem strong I would murder these people. I already knew how too.

The body of one of the conscripts who tried to escape was left here as a warning. It had two large horns pointing from the front of its head, and blue skin.

One of its horns cracked, loose from the blow the creature took to the face.

I reached forward and grasped at it, pulling with all my might.

POV Change (Commander Belk)

Conscriptions were one of Belk's favorite parts of the job, the new meat they found on conquered or destroyed planets always panicked quite nicely when they found out they weren't strong enough to make the cut, to be real warriors.

The fear as they realized they'd either die entertaining the strong on this ship or die distracting the strong when the real fighting started was always delicious to see.

He was walking to evaluate who had enough spine to be sent out with blasters in hordes to attack planetary defense forces while the real warriors fought, and who would be used as target practice.

He had even heard one of the latest batches even had someone with a power level of three, what a laugh it would be to see such a weak creature break against the punches of even low ranked soldiers.

He was having fun today, pulling them out one by one and watching the rest panic when he returned, hoping they'd have just a little more time to live.

He used the last man he'd grabbed to feed one of the more crazy members of his followers in the 89th invasion squad.

Pretty funny actually.

With a skip in his step Commander Belk returned to the room the kept the conscripts in, with a jump he appeared in front of the door faster than some of these weaklings could even see and started to shout "Alright meat, whos ne-"

The weakest one of the batch stood over the struggling form of a Geressian, probably the last of its kind now that he thought of it, withdrawing a horn from its eye.

The other two had already been killed, their eyes having been taken out with the same horn the "Human" held.

It turned to him with a smile and said "They bothered me with all this cowardice. if we are gonna die, I'd rather it by with three more kills under my belt than I had before."

A pleasant surprise, turns out the weak conscript had the spine for the upcoming invasion.


	2. Chapter 2

Apparently, they wanted me to help them clear a world out, not all fighters in Freeza force actually have the fighting power to blow up a world like Vegeta could in his first entrance to the series.

So they sent in a bunch of peons as fodder while those with power levels above 300 did the real work.

The good news was they did provide training to all members, even conscripts like me. This was overall a Meritocracy, so while it was nearly unheard of, apparently some individuals could make the jump to regular soldier. In theory, a soldier could then jump to commander, and so on, but it had never really been done.

The bad news was I had three days before we reached our next target, I was smart enough to realize doing something like fighting someone else or lifting weights was unlikely to accomplish anything but making me a laughing stock, so I retired to the barracks to get a feel for this "Ki" the z warriors always talked about. If it made Tien, someone who apparently was a (somewhat) normal human, capable of actually fighting cell than it clearly had enough merit for me to try it out.

Our next target was supposed some easy world with a good ecosystem and plenty of mineral resources, but I was worried it would be a death world for someone like me.

So I sat, criss cross apple sauce, and tried to feel the universe around me.

I could feel the difference between this universe and my own, but beyond that, I had no idea what to do. So I looked within myself for some spark of energy, some portion of power to fuel my future as a warrior. What else could I be when most other beings apparently had a god-like power over me?

I looked and looked for hours, focusing on mundane breathing methods just to keep still. As time went on and my anxiety at the situation faded, my mind stopped whirling. I stopped focusing on my pending doom. The silence I once felt as horrifying now helping me to search and do nothing else.

Until I found it, It was small, hard to feel and harder to grasp, but it was mine.

I had power now, a power that I knew could grow to surpass my current oppressors, the power to stand against the Freezas, the Cells, and the Buus of the world. I wouldn't be defending anybody but myself, but knowing I could fight them eventually, with enough training was relieving to say the least.

Others in this place gave up or stagnated, thinking they could grow no stronger, or that they had already become the very strongest that would ever exist, but not me.

I knew this place had ways of throwing foes at you until they broke you, it even happened to Goku. He was just one of those lucky enough to have a magical bullshit machine to come back to life.

I would not be so lucky.

A human could become strong here. A human would become strong here. Hell, even without training there were ways to grow in strength.

The Tree Of Life, The Dragon Balls, The Hero Water and the possibility of more all crossed my mind. If I could take advantage of such things I would. For now, though all I could do was wait and hope.

There was one power a lot closer to my reach though.

There was one way to power that all the greatest heroes used. One that had turned the mighty Goku into a force of nature, that had allowed Goku access to the power locked within the Sayain DNA.

The power of Gravity, Goku had trained at gravity beyond that of earth, beyond that of many planets, and it changed him into a "super" Sayain. Honestly, it seemed odd that something that would normally just crush people to goo would make him so strong, but I had to believe Ki was the answer.

Ki would allow me to experience the training without being crippled, it would allow me to grow to the levels I needed.

It would have to.

I began to move my Ki, a task that came at surprising ease. I was probably the Sakura of Dragon Ball, low energy, easy control. I could feel it emanating from my center in slow, eager waves, leaving my body and dispersing into the air around me.

The first step was to try and make it not do that so much. Not a lot to go off of I know, but apparently, you get the most bang for your buck if you reduce how much you let out of your body. I remember something about it making people considerably stronger.

I felt at it for hours, poking and prodding, but all it really did was piss me off. When I took a break I finally noticed that others had joined me in the room, looking at me with wariness from the other side of the room were two purple people.

The horns meant they probably shared the same species of the person whos horn I now held with me.

Not the best impression to make, but at least they wouldn't bother me now. Fear was a weapon I would have to learn to use anyway.

I glared at the one who looked me in the eye, imagining attacking him with a laser beam from my eye.

He gasped and turned around. I felt the Ki in my body return to its natural form, I smiled.

As I decided to lay down on my cot, the only one in the "barracks" as they called it, I decided I would need to practice a bit more while I pretended to sleep.

Apparently, I can already do something that looks pretty fucked with my eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

For three days I sat in a room, trying to figure out how ki worked well enough to fight and make my eyes glow, as I could apparently now do.

In some ways it was successful, I already felt stronger, faster and better than I had before, the flab of my not skinny but not fat form was already beginning to melt away as I learned how to use fighty space magic.

Hell, I could even sorta feel other people's energy if they got close enough. It was no wonder Vegeta figured it out so quickly. Even with my eyes closed, I could now track the movement of the others in the barracks, even when they gave me a wide berth.

Unfortunately, I knew I couldn't really fight even another human all that well yet, I had tried to project my energy in a blast when my fellow conscripts were asleep.

It had not worked as I had hoped.

A pitiful red light came out of my hand and lightly marked the wall, it would have been mildly acceptable if I hadn't immediately passed out from the strain.

As it was it was just embarrassing. No wonder the soldiers thought regular people were jokes, compared to them they kind of are.

The most effective ability I had was some kind of fluke at laser eyes, making my eyes glow a burning orange. It even scared me a little bit.

Sure it was only cosmetic, but if my enemies thought I was more powerful than I was all the better to get them to back off. If nothing else I can now look a bit scarier.

I did have more energy than before though, my incredibly weak power beam drained me for a day and a half when I first used it. I feel like I might be able to do it without passing out any longer at least.

Even if I did though, it wouldn't have a whole lot of use yet, trying to attack someone on this ship with that would be like attempting to collapse a brick wall with my flaccid dick, an impossible and incredibly painful way to fail at something.

When commander Belt or whatever the fuck his name came in and announced we were ready for the attack I realized that at the very least I could use my fellow conscripts as a means of shielding myself from whatever we gotta fight.

It can't be too bad if they think a swarm of almost regular non-powered individuals stand a chance at killing the defenders of this next world. Porcellen was what the world was called.

Probably wouldn't keep the name when we wiped out the indigenous population.

They dropped us planetside in a large, shittier version of attack balls with one blaster bracer to keep between us. I shared it with me myself and I.

The purple people might have tried to argue if I didn't put it on the moment I found it.

It was a beautiful place to behold, this doomed world. Purple skies could be seen as we were dropped alongside so many other pods, some falling apart even without the volleys of some kind of weapon fire trying to stop us.

Thousands of shitty attack balls fell, filled with up to 10 conscripts each, hundreds were blown apart as they approached the surface, I could see the quality ones flying overhead, not even shaken by the attacks coming to them.

It was about what I expected, but I did not appreciate the contempt they had for my safety. If I was gonna die, I'd rather it be while attempting to live than cowering in a rickety ass ship.

When we finally hit the surface it was with a booming crash, the pod crumbled and broken machinery covered in wires greeted our eyes. One of the purple conscripts got impaled by a crossbeam. I nearly held the same fate, but I managed to move my head to the side before it pierced my skull.

Thank you new ki enhanced reflexes, you will be used in the future to great effect.

The belts securing me were not coming off, desperate use of my new power told me I had enough juice to cut a strap of alien leather.

It took a lot of struggling and wiggling, but I was able to exit the harness. electricity sparked and a fire had already started in the corner, yet another purple alien looked to me for help.

I left the ship alone, feeling like an asshole.

The trees and bushes of the forest around me were odd, but not totally unrecognizable. They looked almost normal if not for the jagged shape of the leaves and plants, and the rim of purpe sorrounding the edges of every leaf and blade of grass.

An unknown land of purple and green extended before me, no animals or people were in sight.

A message appeared across the bracer, in text across a small glass panel. No attempts at a proper mission dossier were made

**Proceed North Kill All Defenders**

Even the grammar was bad.

With a reluctant stride, I proceeded into the forest, following the beeping triangle on my wrist. Fuck this place.


	4. Chapter 4

Going north put me through a maze of foliage, a veritable jungle of plants I could not recognize stretched out before me. I was beginning to get worried

This place was utterly silent. The only noise was the occasional sound of explosions in the distance, judging from what I sensed the defenders had some fighters of their own battling in the skies above, the strongest of them fighting one of ours as we speak.

I recognized his power as Jernus, the commander of the ship that arrived here. He was only 1500, but apparently his experience at command earned him a full battle group of individuals nearly as strong. It seemed like they were in stalemate for now, but it was difficult to tell without actually being there.

I distracted myself by tugging at my power, twisting it about and feeling out the changes I could make with it. The more control I had now, the more powerful I could be when I actually grew more powerful. Even now, knowing what I do from the show, I'm certain that with the right control I could overpower everyone on my ship, even our esteemed commander

The silence of the forest only grew as I strayed further from the main battle, leaving me to tread deeper into my thoughts. When the battle was won, how was I to train when we went back aboard the ship? If I went into the portions of the ship used for such a purpose I may be able to improve, but anyone watching would realize just how weak I actually was. Even if they wouldn't kill me for amusement afterward, they would know the truth.

I was desperate to appear as strong as possible, not just out of fear, but out of shame.

Suddenly discovering your an ant to the other people in the galaxy, almost a toy to be used, was an experience of more than fear. It was realizing that even if you wanted too, you would never be able to defend yourself against someone else any more than you could the sky falling, or the earth splitting. It was the inevitability of my own destruction. I was ashamed of the truth, that I was weak enough to be a bug in these peoples eyes.

I felt something at the edge of my senses before it flitted away.

I stopped, finally noticing I couldn't even hear the battle anymore. An empty jungle sat before me, terrible in its unfamiliarity.

I was being watched, probably by the enemy, whatever they were. Did they know how to hide their power levels?

Was this world a wolf in sheep's clothing, like the earth of this universe? I cursed my stupidity at never considering the possibility.

I primed my blaster and readied the makeshift stabbing weapon I had acquired. I felt some shame at using a persons horn as a knife, but survival was a strong motivator.

I never should have let my guard down in a place like this, I never should have let it down at all.

The power I sensed circled at the edges of my awareness, seemingly testing for weakness. I was terrified but made efforts at hiding it.

Finally, from directly behind me, the power struck, moving at blinding speed it was already nearly upon me by the time I swung around.

Without even taking the time to examine the creature I fired of two blasts into its charging form, It screeched and ran, taking a futile swing with some kind of blade on its arm, before retreating back into the jungle and out of my ability to sense.

That was not a defending soldier. It was a predator native to this land.

It had pale green skin, an insectoid form that stood on two legs. It had two arms, one of which held grizzly claws, the other ended in a blade, gleaming in the relative darkness of the jungle.

The creature had no eyes, but a maw of hundreds of teeth, three sets to be exact. It was probably hunting me now.

The blasts may have hurt it, but the creature didn't seem to injured when I scared it off. I wiped at my eye as some kind of liquid fell into it.

As I pulled my hand back, drenched in red, I knew the creature hadn't used its blade to no effect. It had landed a blow on my face, the condition of which I had no way of investigating.

Prodding at my wound seemed a bad idea, I continued north as the blood streamed down my face. The initial lack of pain was already coming to an end, and I was already feeling weaker from blood loss.

It followed me as I journeyed.

As the hours passed I realized the creature had no desire for another confrontation, it would simply wait for me to exhaust myself trying to escape and have an easy meal.

I stopped as I realized what it wanted, and fell over.

I closed my eyes, the blood already making one of them useless, and felt out the Ki of the creature following me while making an effort of lowering my own. The creature had no eyes, so perhaps it relied on sensing energy, as I now did.

I waited for thirty minutes before I felt the creature grow closer, it chittered as it crossed the distance between us. It seemed pleased its prey would fall so quickly, so easily.

This thing too was aware of how little power I had, how little I could do to stop the real predators from attacking me. It would laugh at me if it could, chiding me for thinking an attack against a planet would result with anything other than my death.

I could hear its footsteps now, padding across the ever softer grass, its hunched form slobbering as it approached. It finally stopped before me, raising one bladed arm into the air, screeching its final victory.

With all the speed I could muster, I twisted around and shot it in the head.


	5. Chapter 5

Anger, determination, and pure stubbornness rose through me as I struggled, the sheer effort of my current task forcing me to rely on ki to increase my strength.

The creature fell on me when I killed it.

After struggling against its weight for nearly 20 minutes I was finally able to get it off me and inspect my work. An energy blast that close blew a hole in its head, disabling whatever this creature used as a brain.

It was 8 feet of pure horror, clearly an apex predator of this world, too bad this world was a weak one. well, too bad for it anyway, personally I was ecstatic.

I killed this fucking thing, **me**, and nothing could take that from me. Still, fighting it did bring some interesting facts to light, most things cant sense energy. Those that can think they're hot shit. If I use my energy right I can lie about how I'm faring to both scouters and those that sense Ki.

It also highlighted that relying on my own poor fighting skill to survive was a terrible idea, one I shouldn't revisit until I actually had fighting skill. Which means its time to do what humans do best in the face of adversity.

Cheat.

I blasted the creatures bladed arm with my canon a few times, severing it from the beast's carcass and fastening my horn to my belt. I need a weapon that can help close the gap between me and other foes beside this cannon. A sword would do nicely.

It was still a big fucking sword though, so I blasted the top down a few times, shortening the blade to something that can be wielded in one or both hands. It was still heavy as fuck, but if anything that meant it would be an effective training tool.

The insectoid limb I was using for grip would have to eventually be replaced if I wanted to use it to full effect, but I was just happy to have a sword, to be honest.

With the blade in one hand, I stumbled further along the jungle, finally finding a path to travel along instead of wandering through a jungle I now know holds a number of horrible predators.

Checking my wrist, I noticed the mission hadn't changed, apparently, most enemy resistance was north of here. I jogged further down the path in hopes of at least seeming like I was dedicated to the mission.

I wouldn't want to be killed with the rest of the inhabitants of this world.

The path eventually branched, and not thinking about where to go I simply went to the right, eventually stumbling upon the wreckage of a village. Stronger members of the invasion force probably flew through here, killing the villagers and any resistance they found along the way.

It would be a good opportunity to know what I'm up against and scavenge for medical supplies while I was at it.

It seemed the people of this land believed in harmony with nature, most of the corpses I found were dressed in woven plant fiber and wore masks composed of the bark to many of the trees around this place. They were of Pale skin and gangly form, but while their forms initially suggested height, they seem on average pretty short, mostly around four and a half feet tall.

The fibrous cloth they used for clothing did, however, make usable bandages and bindings, a piece of carved wood and some cloth allowed for a cross guard to my new weapon. I also gathered the cloth to eventually be used for my wound, when I actually got a chance to examine it.

It took some time, but I was able to find a pool of still water that looked relatively clear, I wasn't going to drink from it but at the least, it provided something of a mirror to use to inspect my battle wounds.

Above my eye, just at the end of my brow was a massive gash, leading from the edge of the brow and disappearing into my hair. It luckily seemed not to have damaged the skull too greatly, mostly just grazing along the flesh in a large cut clearly worthy of stitches. The largest issue was near the eye socket, where a chunk of bone did get cut out.

Only looking at it now really brought the pain to the forefront of my mind, the blade must have been sharp to do as much damage as it had without notice. Feeling nauseous I wrapped the cloth around my head, covering my eye, but also covering the wound.

This place had nearly killed me before I even met any people. I would have to avoid the fights that I could and look for an opportunity to seem like I was participating in the slaughter in spite of my weakness.

With that in mind, I trudged back to the village, steeling myself for the effort of what I was about to do. Killing people was a matter of survival, what I was about to do was the same, but somehow felt worse.

When I found the first body in the village I stood over it and braced the sword in my hand, I bent over the corpse and began the chop at them. If I took trophies no one would question my efforts in battle. I would have to be a monster to live, wouldn't I?

I took 10 slender right hands from that village and moved along the path to the next. This time I walked outside the path, but still within relative sight, I did not want to be seen by any passerby or defenders unless I had too.

It was the right decision, my senses warned me of a group of fighters ahead of me, so I crouched behind some bushes and waited for them to pass me. It was the locals' defenders. They seemed weary and bloodied. I let them go in the direction I had come from, they would not be pleased with what they found.

I wouldn't either.


	6. Chapter 6

As I walked further north I finally broke past the jungle, coming into a plain of whatever this planet had for grass, purple tinted leaves glowing against the purple orange sunrise, it would have been beautiful to behold if not for the ship hanging over the horizon, burning all in its path with energy blasts.

The weapon fire that killed so many of our pods earlier this morning was still being returned to our ship, but it was clearly fading as time went on, In the sky I could see several figures fighting almost too fast for me to make out, meaning it was dreadfully slow in the lay pg things.

Defenders fought to the last, being killed by the laughing members of Freeza force. Already several bodies dropped to my position from the sky, some already dead, others struggling to get up and defend the home of their people. As much as I felt for them I knew it wouldn't matter what they did, they would never be strong enough as they were. Just like me.

Only I decided I wanted to live, so with Ki enhanced strides I ran to the few still living defenders on the ground, all beings that would be of godlike strength compared to me, if only they hadn't just fought someone stronger. I blasted those I could, chopping the hands from the bodies and tossing them into a makeshift bag of cloth. This went on for some time, Freeza Force members of various races laughing as I finished those who couldn't fight anymore, I forced myself to laugh with them. In my mind reminding myself of how weak they really are. One day they would fear me as I feared them. I was sure of it.

As I approached an exhausted defender he looked at what I was doing, the trophies I had already collected, and spat out some kind of insult in his language. I hesitated for a moment, trying to think of a way to convey how I felt about all this, to explain I didn't want to do this to his people, his planet.

I felt the need to show this one being, filled with fight and life I was not what he thought I was, and he took advantage of that.

A power beam hit my chest, one that would easily have killed me if not for the armor I now wore, and the fatigue of my opponent, I was blasted through the air at least a dozen feet. For a moment I felt betrayed before I realized this thing had no reason to think of me as anything other than his enemy.

I had been a fool to expect anything less from a wounded dog just like me, thinking he wouldn't attack for just a moment more of life, just a moment more to slay the enemy before him.

He growled through his mask at me, limping to my position as I attempted to stand back up. In a moment he had brought me down to his level, weakened and exposed.

I looked to the sky for aid, but while some did see what happened to me they simply laughed and watched, I would receive no help today, not from these monsters.

The masked being had broken at least two ribs, my labored breathing already told me that. His approach was halted by some attempt at an insult, telling me I was weak, a coward no doubt. It wasn't wrong, but it still stung to hear it, unrecognizable or not.

I was finally able to stand and raise my sword and my blaster. With a sluggish arm, I aimed at the creature, firing off blasts as it approached. It was fast enough to predict where the shots were coming from and smart enough to dodge before I squeezed the trigger.

As I fired shot after shot and the creature seemed to catch some of its breath, and it began to return fire, one shot taking my knee out of the picture, forcing me to kneel. Another shot obliterated one of my stupid shoulder pads. The third grazed my face along the bandage, cutting it apart and pouring blood into my eye yet again.

It approached me in stagger step, gloating its victory all the way to my position, focusing on being in my blind spot now that it had noticed the cloth I had earlier used as a bandage. As I turned to where its last attempt at my blind side ended I noticed it had disappeared.

Just like Id hoped it took the time to jump behind me, as the masked fucker prepared some insult about looking behind me I poured all my energy into my sword arm, and swung with speed far beyond what a human should be capable of, rising in agony and turning in an instant spin to watch as my blade bisected the being. A surprised look crossed its face as its life faded away from it. It probably knew it was going to die today, but it hadn't expected to lose to me. I was only a weakling after all.

The problem with dragon ball was always enemies talking far too much, extending the battle and giving the underdog a chance of pulling some trick off.

He got arrogant in a moment of exhaustion, so I stole victory right out of his hands.

He had been a fool to expect anything less from me, a wounded dog hoping for another moment to live, another moment to kill his enemy.

I smiled and laughed into the air with those who watched the fight, before passing out from Ki exhaustion, my last thoughts were of hope that one of the others would bother to take me back after that fight.


	7. Chapter 7

Fevered dreams and fitful sleep seemed to pervade my very being in the aftermath of the battle. I was placed back into the empty barracks of my particular group of conscripts, not that it was even a group anymore, the only others I had died in the landing.

My clothing was taken to be repaired or replaced, along with the arm canon they had provided, but they left my sword to keep me company. Perhaps they respected my last kill enough to let me keep it as a trophy from the planet, just as they "graciously" did with the limbs I had taken.

They put the rotting hands along the wall above my bed, a reminder to the evil I committed and will commit in the name of my own survival. Part of me was disgusted, some other part was proud they were beginning to see me as one of them. One of Freeza's men.

The ship did have access to healing pods, but only the actual rank and file get to use them. Conscripts are simple fodder and easily replaced from local populations. Which left me to deal with my wounds the old fashioned way, mostly.

One of the commanders apparently saw my fight and figured I deserved a reward, allowing me to use precious little of the healing fluid they produced in the form of a gel. It wasn't as effective but it let my ribs heal over a couple of days instead of a couple of weeks.

It was not, however, enough to waste on the mostly superficial wounds the jungle had given me, meaning I now had a large and very permanent scar across my eye and brow. Honestly, it looked kinda cool so I didn't have a huge problem with it cosmetically, the large issue was the obviously foreign infection my body now has to face. It didn't impede the training I began to undertake when my ribs healed, but it did hurt.

I began swinging my sword with a two-handed grip for my training, focusing on swinging it in a clear and steady manner. I wasn't familiar with swordplay but figured steady swings were at the very least a start. The weight of the sword will also help increase muscle mass in the future.

It would be some time before new conscripts and soldiers came in to replenish the losses we took on the planet. While on average it was as weak as the reports stated apparently a few members of the local leadership had power levels of over a thousand, one of which almost killed the ships commander Jernus, a member of the red-skinned race Jeice of the Ginyu force was from.

Jernus' injuries were somewhat easily healed by the healing pods, but he lost a limb in the battle and now had to take the time to get a replacement, buying potential weeks of training before our next invasion even began its journey to a new planet.

Time I needed to take advantage of. If I gained the power to become a soldier I would immediately have more respect from the others and I would have access to the healing pod for any coming battles.

So here I was, training like I never had before. Every day was filled with push-ups, sit-ups, and crunches. Every night was filled with practice at Ki and practice at the blade. It hurt to keep up with such a regime, but the progress with the use of Ki my body could go far longer and far harder than it had before.

The results were already beginning to show. When I pushed myself at my best under the eyes of a cheap scouter I had received after the attack I could see a power level far more pleasing than 3.

Whenever I trained at my very best I could see a blinking 15 reflected back at me from my position. It wasn't much for certain, but I still had weeks and maybe even months to go before real combat was a worry again.

I would be as close to ready as I could be for the next battle, I would not be subject to the amusement of my fellows again. I would be a soldier among them.

I even changed my meals to reflect this change in lifestyle, forcing myself to eat as much as the nutrient paste as I could, overloading my body with as many calories as I could to burn them off later.

Sometimes It felt almost normal to eat around Freeza force soldiers, even if they never sat with me. Sometimes it was just easier to eat in my room.

It was interesting though to hear them speak about conquests and races in the fold of our federation, or about the high-tier warriors who lived in lavish quarters and served as commanders.

They even spoke about the planets and peoples who served particularly well. Which is why I was so surprised to overhear them talking about what they were.

"Did you hear about that so-called warrior race we recently inducted into the Federation?" "Yeah, they call themselves Saiyans, I hear they're actually pretty strong, and that some of them even sometimes turn into these giant monsters when they fight."

"Really? I thought it was just a rumor." "It might be, but it sounds like they're pretty hard-core."

As I passed the speaking soldiers a smile pulled across my face.

It seems I had more time than I thought to get stronger.

This _was_ good news.


	8. Chapter 8

Ki was an amazing thing, without it training would be a useless endeavor in the face of beings at dragon balls power, but here I am, already stronger than the average human could hope to be. With Ki I could and would train for hours on end, focusing my control and power until It far surpassed what I once was.

I would already be an arrogant bastard if I was still on earth, it was easy to see why stagnation was so common in this place. That and the fact that most races powerhouses lost the ability to train, I can see why it seemed unlikely for a being to improve much given the lack of challenge training starts to represent. How much weight could I strap to my form in the coming years before it became impossible to train? How much speed would I have to move at to feel the strain? How much can I practice my ki before it breaks the world I'm training on?

That's the genius of gravity training, with ki it won't break my form as it would in my old life, Which is why I was eager to travel somewhere with higher gravity than earth standard. The ship's gravity is little above earths own, enough to be noticeable once you begin to train, as I had.

For now, I had no control over where I could train and how, but it won't be too long before my power grows to a point they might just let me leave the ship and go my own way. A power level of one thousand was needed to travel on your own and clear weaker planets of life.

It was perhaps an overeager thought, but I was fairly certain I could reach that in a year, with my knowledge of the existence of Ki and its nature I could move past what most thought was possible. They didn't know the sheer volume for improvement in strength even a human had access to.

The helpful thought of most threats being nowhere near Goku's level at this day and age left me a bit giddy with the possibilities. I had more than enough time to go without worrying and making a stupid mistake in pursuit of enough power to defend myself. I had been considering stealing an attack ball before I heard that conversation.

I probably would have died in the attempt, but it would have gotten me the necessary ability to travel the universe.

For now, I would wait, and I would serve.

A month had passed before Jernus received his robotic limb, and we were now on the move, A new planet of unknown strength had been discovered and recently even received an invasion, but pushed it back, killing all the invaders. An attack force of Middling strength was put together to subjugate the population, Our ship, and three others were to attack the planet at once.

Our mission to that world would take a hefty 2 years, but only due to the stops towards other worlds we would be taking along the way, ones of strength close to that of our previous conquest.

I was eager to try out my new power, in spite of myself. My sword, which I could once barely lift after a few swings was now as light as the sticks I used to play within the front yard when I was a kid, I could shoot blasts of power from my hand and I could make my eyes glow with my inner power.

Forgive me for freaking out a bit at the possibilities.

I wonder just how strong I can be when I get to this planet, this world called Crematorius. It was supposed to be quite the place. Even as I am now I'm certain going would kill me at my current strength. Two years should be all I need to become a warrior they allow on to leave on his own.

I've been watching the soldiers train themselves, beating conscripts to death and fighting amongst themselves. Some trained in odd techniques Id never seen before, others simply sat and laughed at the attempts of others at making themselves strong, like our commander, in his fancy balcony overseeing the training area. He sometimes likes to watch his men train, inspecting them like a Roman Dominus would his gladiators, searching for strength and weakness in the men he would personally take to battle with him.

Jernus would sometimes put demonstrations forward to keep the crew in line, destroying a soldier who spoke poorly about him or killing those whos strength might just be enough to take him out.

They would all laugh at the strength of those who tried to improve, to grow past their limits. Yet as I watched the soldiers fight in displays of great power and speed I smiled. I knew how to improve where they didn't, how to grow while they stagnated.

As I watched the soldiers fight, I couldn't help but be aware of my own improvements.

Where once they would be nearly invisible to my eye, I could see their blurred forms clash against each other.

If I could see these men fight each other, I wonder just how well I might fair against one of them. When he sees me hiding my power level and tries to play with his kill, as all villains in Freeza's army do, will he really be able to kill me?

Or would I be able to overcome another limit?


	9. Chapter 9

It would be another month before we reached our next target, some world called Tagorn, Another easy world, with an apparent average power level of 50.

I trained and struggled for two weeks before commander Belk brought in the new conscripts we received from passing slavers, we didn't buy them, of course. We blew up the ship and took what stock they had, enslaving all its inhabitants. I hear Jernus even took the ships apparently quite beautiful captain as a sex slave. I wasn't a moral person before I was captured, I didn't care that ship had slaves of any kind.

But even I found the irony to be hilarious. Slaver captain now getting rammed by one of Freeza's lackeys, heh.

When Belk arrived with 8 shaking men, I was amused, they were dressed far too well to be slaves. "This is the new meat Dennis, treat them well and educate them to there new lifestyle." "Will do sir, will do"

I stepped in front of the men, who seemed much more comfortable outside of Belk's presence. "Welcome to Freeza force, meat. As conscripts our job is to be fodder to the real soldiers out there, fighting and dying for there general amusement, if you want some small chance at survival you'll listen to me, and you'll listen to them." One of the men laughed, a being of orange pallor, standing at least half a foot taller than me. "Why should we listen to you, you look weaker than nearly anything on our planet was, like a little shorn rabbit you-"

I crossed the distance between us in an instance and planted my fist in his guts, when he bent over I broke his face across my knee. Looking to his men, my eyes now a burning orange, I spoke again.

"This place is run by the strong, everyone here who is a conscript is considered too weak to be a real soldier, but that doesn't make you stronger than me. You will listen to me not because Belk told you to, but because I will kill you myself if you don't."

I looked to the groaning man on the floor, and with some hesitation raised my foot.

A Ki enhanced foot fell upon the man's neck, severing his head from his body.

"The conscripts who don't listen to me quickly find a place on my wall." I gently placed the head against a shelf, kindly given to display my previous trophies.

"Are we clear?" The conscripts, now under my command, all nodded.

"Our target world is Tagorn, a shitty world with shitty power levels guarding it, our objective is to clear it of life and sell it to the highest bidders, if you succeed in surviving the experience of taking it, you will be given the privilege of eating on this ship, and not being selected for whatever fun a soldier has in mind for you, like I hear your captain has."

"The men here are oh so lonely you see." The conscripts shuddered and paled. "If you want to avoid a fate like hers, I'd hope you stay in this room, and if you get any ideas about escape, or attacking me, I want you to look at your friend here on my wall."

I picked up my blade and left, realizing watching these men would only distract from my training. Now would be as good a time as any to train with the soldiers.

When I entered the room and actually began training alongside them, they seemed a bit surprised, as before I had only watched in awe. Now I stood with them and began my efforts with the blade.

Some of them laughed at my slow speed, and the lack of power behind my swings, but I went mostly ignored by the soldiers, as I was at the very least, not so pathetic as to be completely worthless.

I swung my blade in slashes to the front and sides for hours, focusing on using the same set of moves. I did hundreds of push-ups and crunches until the time came to retire, and then returned to my barracks.

I found six men shivering in the corner, but didn't bother to ask what happened to there compatriot. When I finally sat down on my cot I decided it was time to practice my control and fluctuate my power in different intervals, the beeping scouter I kept above me blinked sixty, before returning to three, the number I had been found at. I didn't want people to think I was advancing to quickly.

I had learned a single ability, one I used in my last real battle. I could burn out all my energy into a single blow, hitting harder than a being at my power level should. It was my new trump card, something I would use if I ever fought an actual threat to my life, and I would.

I sensed one of the conscripts moving towards me in my seeming sleep, he grabbed at my sword with painful slowness, trying not to wake me. When his hand fully grasped it I lifted my hand and without opening my eyes expended half my energy to blow his head off.

No one else tried anything that night.

The next morning we were prepared for battle, As the most senior recruit, I was given an arm cannon. When we boarded the ship I smiled at the men.

"You boys ready to die?"

The attack ball launched from the ship to the sound of screams and my laughter.


	10. Chapter 10

We landed without much difficulty, except a little turbulence caused by some of the other pods exploding, The planet's gravity was a little bit more than that of the ship, twice that of earth. The sluggish movements of the other conscripts made that clear.

The landscape was largely industrial, Cities and skyscrapers filled the horizon, stretching miles downward, some seemed new and shining, but those at the bottom were aged and filled with decay. The sky was filled with smog and ash, probably why the planet had such low value.

The inhabitants would not give up without a fight, sending out flying defenders reinforced by turret-fire from many of the newer buildings. The conscripts and I had landed on one such building, With a command to take out the turrets, I descended into the chaos below, following the lead of several soldiers who landed nearby.

The inside of the building was relatively pristine and was filled with light defenders. The people of the planet Tagorn were around the size of humans, but with three-fingered hands and graying skin. They had red eyes and mouths with nor teeth, resembling that of turtles.

The defenders shot at us with projectile weapons, to which I sought cover, my stronger fellows simply waded through it and crushed the screaming men, before proceeding deeper inwards in search of anything of value.

When we reached the bottom all we had found were civilians offering surrender, to which the local captain simply denied before murdering everyone. I felt some concern at my lack of care towards these individuals deaths but moved on none the less.

When we left from the bottom floor one of the men charged an attack and sent it upward, blowing the entire building to hell. So much for our conscripts.

The soldiers flew on to the next building, I was able to follow more from enhanced jumping and clinging to the sides of buildings than flying, but was proud of myself regardless.

Several buildings were cleared before we met notable resistance, in which the people of the planet launched hundreds of flying robots to attack us in the sky, many of them seemed to match our soldiers in strength, if not in skill and desperation.

I was able to avoid being ambushed by a pack of them like the squad I was traveling with by not already being in the air, the sheer number of robots won them that fight, the men with power nearly 4 times that of my self were all screaming as they were torn apart.

I bravely chose to enter a decayed building with a definitely not girlish scream, unfortunately breaking a window to enter and grabbing the machines attention.

At least 50 machines flew in after me, and here I was uncertain about taking even one on. People were easy, but a robot was a lot less likely to pull something stupid, like a victory speech or giving me the chance to escape and fight again later.

I hid in the ceiling, having found a hole leading into a relatively small crawl space, and placing myself behind some debris. The clanking of the robots filled the empty building as they searched for me.

I heard one of them approaching my hiding spot and lowered my power level, just to be safe as it passed by. It seemed the robots didn't like to look up, it only took an hours wait before most of them left to other floors, but I could still hear a few clanking about on my floor.

If I wanted a chance to escape before the possibility of them returning arose I would need to act now. I picked up a can and threw it down the corridor I hid above and waited for them to pounce. It didn't take long.

A misshapen robot, built of some odd mix of scrap metal, ran down the hall fast enough to catch a blaster to the back of the head as I dropped down, When I rose up it was to three robots and the sound of the rest returning to my position. quickly I was able to shoot two of them down before the third one approached and forced me into melee.

It was stronger and faster than me, grabbing at my arm and trying to crush my throat, I was barely able to keep up with it.

As the sounds of other robots approaching got louder I decided I needed to end this fast, so I let the thing grab my arm, crushing it and making it all but useless, before cutting it down with my sword. I could see red lights around the corner of the hallway, so I ran the other way, jumping through the glass of one building and into the one next to it.

A group of scientists in lab coats stared back at me, before one of them pressed a red button, ominously leading to the sound of more robots being awoken. I raised my broken arm with some difficulty and shot at the fleeing civilians, killing most of them, my sluggish movements did, however, allow one of them to escape into a stairwell.

Quickly I jumped yet again from the building, falling hundreds of feet before spending some ki to halt some of my momentum. I could fly with some effort, but it would effectively take me out of the fight for how much energy it would take from me.

When I reached what seemed to be the bottom of the city I entered a dismal place, seemingly for the homeless and the destitute, before I froze.

I could sense the lifeforce of dozens of individuals just below me, all seemingly in one place, they appeared to be feeling more anger than fear, and most seemed almost exhausted by whatever activity they were taking part in.


End file.
